Medal of Honor recipient makes impression on Buckhorn students

Tibor Rubin receives the Medal of Honor from President George W. Bush in 2005. NEW MARKET, AL - Tibor Rubin has a fan club at Buckhorn High School.

The Hungarian-born Jew spent two years of his childhood in a concentration camp that was liberated by American soldiers. From that time on, he wanted to be a "GI Joe."

Not only did Rubin join the U.S. Army after he came to America in 1949, he showed such valor in the Korean Conflict that he was presented with the Medal of Honor. He is one of only 3,458 men and one woman to receive it since Congress established the award in 1861.

The students in Jenny Barrett's Great Wars class at Buckhorn got to know Rubin through a Medal of Honor curriculum teachers in Madison, Huntsville and Madison County schools are using this semester.

The curriculum was developed in Erie, Pa., and the schools in Madison County are the first to pilot the program outside of Alabama. The goal is to spread the program across the state, said Jay Town, who is the chairman of the Medal of Honor Gala that will be held in Huntsville in August.

"We have 27 schools and 38 teachers using it right now," said Town, who is a Madison County assistant district attorney. "By the time of the gala, those numbers will have doubled. By 2012, we hope to have it in a school in every county in Alabama."

The Medal of Honor project began here when Town met Leo Thorsness several years ago. Thorsness, who now lives in Madison, is president of the Medal of Honor Foundation and a retired U.S. Air Force colonel. He was awarded the Medal of Honor for his service in Vietnam, which included six years in the infamous "Hanoi Hilton" prisoner-of-war camp.

"I'm just a lucky guy to have gotten involved and to be lucky enough to host this gala," Town said. "Scores of people are involved."

More than 35 or the 91 living Medal of Honor recipients are scheduled to attend the gala, proceeds from which will help pay for the curriculum materials. Each teacher receives a notebook of biographies on medal recipients and a series of DVDs with interviews and stories about the recipients.

As soon as Pam Gothart, the Teaching American History project director for Madison County Schools, heard about the Medal of Honor curriculum, she wanted in.

The county has 14 teachers using the curriculum, and Gothart said she has gotten very positive feedback on the program.

"Everything in it is just so high-quality," Gothart said. "There are lesson plans in there, but you can take the DVDs and do what you feel like what you need to do with your students. It's incredible."

Jenny Barrett's students signed up for the Great Wars history elective because they're already interested in history, but the Medal of Honor project has added something new. Before studying about it this semester, Brittany Huggins did not know the Medal of Honor existed.

"I know that's terrible," said the Buckhorn junior.

She now appreciates the sacrifices the soldiers who have received the honor made. "I learned you really have to be selfless to do what you do, to risk your life," she said. "A lot of their stories sound surreal."

Rubin, now 80, had an unimaginable story. He could barely speak English when he joined the U.S. Army. His sergeant was an anti-Semite who continually assigned Rubin the most dangerous jobs. Despite the way he was treated, Rubin bravely fought for his unit.

He once single-handedly held off the enemy so his fellow soldiers could retreat to safety. He was captured later in the war and spent 30 months in a prisoner-of-war camp. His captors offered to let him go back to his native Hungary, but he refused, remaining in the camp and sneaking out to get food for his fellow soldiers.

Rubin's comrades nominated him for the Medal of Honor four times, but he did not receive it until 2005.

In his interview for the project, Rubin comes across as a funny, humble man. Barrett's students immediately connected to him, especially after he said he went from "a schmuck" to a "super Jew" after receiving the Medal of Honor.

When Barrett told Town how much her students had liked Rubin, he sent an e-mail to Rubin's daughter. Rubin was in the hospital at the time - he had fallen and hurt the knee that he injured in Korea - but his daughter called Barrett's class.

"He loved it, and he wanted the kids to know that," Barrett said. "He was so glad they were doing this, and she thought he would love this class."

And if Rubin were to ever come to Buckhorn, what would they say to him?

"I would give him a hug and say, 'Dude, I love you,'" said student James Cooper.